Shining light on growing industry

STOCKTON - Mike Liddon hopes to bring a little sunshine into everyone's life.

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Mike Liddon hopes to bring a little sunshine into everyone's life.

Actually, the more sunshine, the better for Liddon's 1-year-old business he calls The Solar-Shack.

Everything he sells is powered by the sun, from "the world's smallest solar-powered car" and other solar toys to educational kits and solar chargers.

Liddon, 55, worked as an arena concessions manager for several years before joining the ranks of Stockton's jobless more than three years ago.

"I was unemployed. I kind of got into this on a dare, a joke. I'd never done retail in my life. Then it turned into something real. When I saw that I was onto something, I took my unemployment check and invested it in inventory," Liddon said.

He's off unemployment, and he's been paying his way ever since.

His first full year in business - he opened shop on April 14, 2012 - has been a rough go, though. He started with a downtown location just off the plaza shared by City Centre Cinemas 16, hoping for foot traffic that never materialized. And his regular customers complained about the parking and the panhandlers.

He caught the attention of many of the students from surrounding schools, but that wasn't enough to sustain the shop, so Liddon decided to close the location and sell exclusively online and at events such as fairs and flea markets. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he can be found at The Market at Delta College.

Solar-Shack products include a four-wheeled vehicle no bigger than a quarter that Liddon sells for $5. It can travel up to 23 mph, he said, and it's his most popular item. Larger cars start at $8 and up. A three-car bullet train sells for $15. There are solar-powered critters such as turtles, spiders, butterflies and frogs; kits to build a wooden windmill or helicopter (non-flying); solar-powered camping lanterns, bicycle lights and all sizes of flashlights guaranteed to save you money on batteries; and all types of solar chargers to power up everything from a small MP3 player to a smartphone and laptop computer.

"People buy three or four flashlights and put them in their cars, their survival kits," Liddon said.

Ideally, Liddon would like to raise the capital to have a permanent kiosk inside a mall with constant foot traffic and then franchise the concept. After all, there is plenty of sunshine to go around.